


something new

by armario



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, kinda spoilers, unspecific timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 10:39:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8664499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armario/pseuds/armario
Summary: There will be many nights like this afterwards.





	

He watches Alaric sleep, a guilty pleasure he has indulged in for many a human.

He can't sort out his feelings at the moment. These humans are getting to him; Elena and Alaric in particular. Contrasting as they are, both make his dead heart struggle to life and beat emotions through his empty veins. 

In the dark night hours, Alaric lies still, tangled in his sheets, snoring softly, one arm thrown across his eyes. His hair falls messily across his pillow and Damon counts every rise and fall of his chest.

Once, only once; Alaric catches him. Damon makes sure he never catches him again but it doesn't matter as much after that night.

"Damon?"

Alaric's voice shakes him out of his trance, hidden in the shadows. Alaric is sitting bolt upright, gun held in hand already pointed at Damon.

"Ric," Damon mutters. He steps forward slowly, hands raised up. "Sorry, man."

"What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

Damon sighs. He has no idea how to explain his way out of this one. Alaric slips out of the bed, distractingly unclothed in a pair of loose boxers. Damon looks for an escape route.

"Everything's fine, Ric," Damon replies. He fixes on a signature smirk. "You just look cute when you sleep."

Alaric squints, sleep clinging to him still, confused. "What?"

"Just forget about it. Hey, let me compel you. Oh, shit yeah, you're still on vervain. Never mind. I'm going to go."

Damon knows he's kind of rambling. He turns away to the door, which seems farther away than ever.

"I'm not on vervain."

He whirls round.  _"What?"_

Alaric rubs his eyes. "I stopped taking it. I carry it, but I'm not drinking it."

"Are you crazy?" Damon snaps, stalking towards him. "Do you have a death wish? I could kill you right now, you stupid-"

"But you won't," Alaric interrupts quietly.  
Damon's mouth falls closed with an irritated, skeptical expression that says  _yes, and the sky is blue._

"Because you've been watching me sleep," the hunter continues. "What are you doing? Watching over me?"

"Yes," Damon hisses. "Because I need you safe. Start taking vervain again or I'll force it down your throat."

Alaric raises an eyebrow.

"I don't know whether to be disturbed or flattered."

Damon huffs. "Be flattered."

Alaric smiles, barely there. Tired but genuine, like he is putting his faith in the recipient to see him like this. Damon lives for those smiles.

"I did it for you," he says bravely, gently.

Damon stares at him, becomes acutely aware of Ric's heartbeat, pulse thudding regularly through his fragile veins. He is so  _human._

"Let me turn you."

"I can't."

"Come on. Alaric."

"Damon, I can't do this. Not tonight. Can you just- just hold off, okay? Jesus. I'm... I don't know what's going on here."

He sounds confused, scared. Damon wants to take him into his arms. He nods instead.

"Okay." Alaric says, suddenly seeming vulnerable, in the way that he has when all is said and done, and he discards his paper thin persona of someone who is actually coping just fine. "I'm, uh. Going back to sleep."

He stands there for a second in the silent pause, then goes back to the bed and tucks the covers round himself.

"Goodnight, Ric," Damon says softly.

"Are you leaving?"

"I don't know. Am I?"

Ric sighs deeply. "You're welcome here."

"Where's here?"

"My bed, Damon?"

Damon rolls his eyes. He steps closer but doesn't take the offer just yet. They've kissed, once or twice, adrenaline filled after narrowly escaping death. They've fucked before, violent and aggressive, after Ric was understandably trying to vent his frustration about his wife on Damon. They've even had sex halfway to loving after Ric almost died and Damon was _so, so_  glad he was alive- that wasn't the first time either of them had let slip that this might be something more than pent-up anger. This is something new.

"So what is this Ric? I'm sleeping in your bed now? What happened to hate-fucking and pretending it never happened?"

"It was just an offer, Damon," Alaric mumbles in response. He sounds exhausted and half asleep already, as though here is a knot he doesn't want to try to untangle now.

Damon gives in without the fight he doesn't want, and after a second of deliberation, he climbs in behind Ric, curling an arm round his waist and pressing them closer, nosing into his shoulder.

"I meant what I said," Damon whispers.

"What?"

"You look cute when you sleep."

Alaric snorts, twists in Damon's arms to kiss him almost scoldingly, then rests his head against Damon's chest.

"You're good, really, Damon," he tells him a little incoherently, lightly scratching his nails over the vampire's arm.

Damon doesn't react to that breakthrough because he might cry if he does. Since Elena, since Alaric, his frozen feelings have begun to thaw out at risk of flooding. He presses the faintest kiss to the top of the other man's head. Together, they fall asleep. 

There is no over thinking this time. 

There will be many nights like this afterwards. Damon watches, always, but makes sure Alaric never catches him again. Tentative falling asleep together until it becomes routine and reassuring, a constant at the end of every long, bloodstained day. There will be fighting and the use of blood in any way it can be used for, and it will bind them strongly together. They will learn each other inside out without even realising. More words spilling forth laced with hesitant affection, until a place is hollowed in their hearts for the other. Alaric and Damon, as they and everyone will come to learn, fit together like pieces in a puzzle.

Death will not separate them.

Alaric chases Damon like a shadow on the other side; his turn to watch over, taste of blood and bourbon lingering on dead lips.


End file.
